Hello!! I was your Secret Rocker Santa. :) It’s been lovely talking with you, and it’s nice to officially meet you!
That’s such a positive view of traveling, about the spontaneous meetings – usually the actual act of traveling from place to place is my least favorite part because of how tiring it can be, and things going wrong, but that’s such a great way to look at it! I’ve only been to LA on short trips, but your descriptions of the landmarks made me miss it. It’s such an exciting place with all that film history. And I love the Charlie Chaplin story, that’s amazing 😂
My favorite parts of that were probably radio and audio production. But I got a degree in literature and ended up switching the media stuff to a minor, since I had already taken the media courses I most wanted (even though they were exclusive to majors, hehe). It’s absolutely ridiculous for anyone to gatekeep literature like that, and I’m sorry that it happened to you! Discouraging people from studying literature is totally the wrong attitude to have, especially these days. I hope you still get the chance to do it someday, ideally at a school that has more reasonable requirements.
You describe the St. Lucia traditions really beautifully!! Especially your memory of hearing the choir in the morning. That paints a lovely picture. :) I remember reading a little about St. Lucia in a children’s book, but that was a long time ago and I didn’t remember very much. I’m glad the rest of your Christmas has gone well so far (I didn’t realize you had two more weeks, I hope they continue to be relaxing) and that your New Year's was fun too! (Do you know the George Harrison song “Ding Dong”? Listening to that is a little New Year’s tradition of mine.) Not having to host is definitely a big plus, haha. I really love your tradition with the phone, that’s so cute. The antique phone also just sounds really cool in itself, actually! How did you come to have that?
Exactly!! We made snide comments like “Yeah, SURE you are, buddy 🙄” because of how NOT shy he was with that girl (whose name I can’t remember either). 🤣
I don’t think I’ve ever had kale except in a salad, do you cook it? No, the fruit is just a regular dish and not a dessert, served hot. I’m pretty sure it’s not a common dish since I’ve never met anyone else who’s heard of it.
Anyway, I hope your 2026 is off to a great start and that there will be many good things in store for you in the year ahead! Especially with your studies and thesis work. ❤️🎆
Hello!! I'm sorry, tumblr didn't notify me so it took awhile for me to see you had sent this! Nice to officially meet you too! :D
Yeah, these days I'm a bit more stressed out about travelling - I have a lot of sensory issues that are worse than when I was younger, plus travelling just feels more stressful in general? It feels like something changed after the pandemic. But I think it can still be wonderful if you don't have a tight schedule or if it's not a disaster if something goes wrong. And even if it does go wrong, it usually works out in the end.
Oh, congratulations on your degree! (Even if it probably was awhile ago). I guess we have pretty similar degrees then - humanities spiced with media production! Yay!
Yeah, well I do look at other universities too when I look for courses since a lot of them do distance based these days, but it seems to be the same everywhere with specifically literature! I'll do it some day, hopefully. You can take certain courses at my university but it's usually summer courses based on a certain genre or authorship - which is also interesting, but not my priority.
Thank you, and I hope your new year's was great too! I celebrated with my friend like I said, and we had a blast. At the strike of midnight we had popped the champagne open and were on her balcony (and it was properly cold!) singing "Start of Something New" at the top of our lungs! (We always end up in a High School Musical performance when we're together). And then we ran back and forth in her apartment to watch the fireworks. I don't think I do know that song actually! I need to look it up - and maybe add it on the new year's playlist for next year! (That's another tradition we have - we make a playlist together where everyone can add song that have been significant during the year or that you just want to hear).
My antique phone is awesome! I bought it on auction cause I wanted one! I'm rather into Victoriana and the main character in my favourite book series/TV series has a wall mounted one, so when I moved I was like "that's one thing I need". And it turned out to be practical too - the writing pad is a *perfect* place to keep your smartphone! So that's where mine lives whenever I'm not using it, and it's great for when I'm like, doing stuff like cooking or whatever but need to reply to messages or check stuff on my phone, since I don't need to pick it up and it's at the perfect height. So that's my home decor tip for anyone who wants a cool place to keep your phone! 😄Here it is (in bad light cause it's dark) plus my other phone which is an Ericsson:
Yeah, for Christmas it's like, boiled and then cooked with cream and spices. I didn't use to like it as a kid but now I do! I use fresh kale a lot during this season though, it's so so good to have in food! I fry it and mix it with scrambled eggs or into an omelette - that's amazingly good. Or just fry it in olive oil with garlic and spices and mix with pasta. Or just fry larger pieces of the leaves in the pan with some salt and eat as chips.
The fruit dish sounds very interesting! I'd like to try it if I ever got the chance!
I hope your 2026 is off to a good start too! ✨🎆
